Comments: This album is not likely to change any fortunes in America, but it has easy appeal to any Anglophile who's picked up on Stereophonics' dynamic, classic sound. The Stereophonics are somewhere musically between Oasis and the Manic Street Preachers. The band's strengths are quite obvious, and plenty effective. Singer Kelly Jones has the best voice in British rock music today - Liam Gallagher's soar minus the annoying whine and plus a bluesy, shivery edge. As this might indicate, Stereophonics do ballads quite well. I count no less than six here-none as luxurious and atmospheric as "Traffic", the centerpiece of Word Gets Around, but all solid enough. Perhaps the best is "Hurry Up and Wait", although "Just Looking" has charted high overseas. Most of the rest clog up the second half of the record, rendering it significantly less memorable than the first. Stereophonics are a young band who have yet to make their masterpiece - but they're getting closer. Hopefully their massive overseas fan base doesn't get in the way.